CONTEXT:
My project resides in a world of beauty and chaos. The emergence of technology made it so convenient to connect to each other, learn from each other and hear the voices from all over the world. People from various cultural background come to the same land and bring in ideas and lifestyles. As the cultures converge, we start to think that we all share the same thoughts, but unfortunately that's not true. The way of thinking and acting varies from culture to culture, individual to individual. The illusion of sameness broke when the recent world crisis amplified the cultural difference and the conflicts caused by it.
DAY1:
Today I'm continuing the idea of my previous prototype: the beak mask, because I need to physically build it in order to have a better idea of whether it makes sense or not. I found some materials I bought for other projects before and started experimenting.
I chose a piece of highly reflective mylar as the main material and some wires to be the frame. At first I wanted to use the face mask as the base but gave up on that idea because it's so hard to wear it all the time to test and it's a little too soft. The reflective material could give it a more absurd and surreal look, and it might be interesting to see some scattered reflection of the space and other people.
After making the tip of the beak I found it kind of fun to have these big round pieces to be the cheek.
The process was pretty spontaneous and experimental. I had some problem trying to tape the left and right piece together and finally stuck them both in the middle of the tip. Doesn't look good in detail but I'll just live with it.
This took me way more than 30 minutes but I just couldn't stop until I made it. It's really more time-consuming than I thought. The initial idea was to hang some small gadgets on it so that it makes sound when you move. Due to the time limitation I didn't make that but I think it could be done in a future implementation. I kind of like the openness of the upper part but that also makes it less like a mask. I'm also imagining more diverse characteristics from more masks that represents different cultural identity/individuality.
After I finished and looking back at this photo above, the mask looks more like an armor and has a cyber punk/futuristic sense of feeling. That actually speaks to the hurtful feeling of misunderstanding/language as a weapon in communication. The mask could be a symbol of armor or a weapon, but on the other hand it could also represent a machine, an invention for better communication.